By Mike Fleishman
Although the day was a bit on the foggy side, there was a strong turnout at Huddart Park for this Saturday meet. About 150 participants showed up, and half of the total ran the White course. Most were orienteering for the first time. The balance of the participants ran a Western Massachusetts Rules Score-O. Twenty-two controls were set throughout the park, and runners had the choice of punching any 6, 10, 15, or 20 controls. Because of the restrictions of the park, all the controls were on trails. While technical difficulty was lacking, there was enough elevation change to provide a good workout. Thanks to Nancy Lindeman and Brian Kirshner who did most of the work to make this event a reality.
Brian Kirshner set the control locations and prepared the map, with some technical assistance from Dan Green and Eric Bone (who also vetted the course), and printing by Bob Cooley. Based on the response from runners, the layout was a success. Special thanks to Chuck Spalding who assisted the meet directors and Brian Kirshner in setting out controls (see below).
To get the newcomers off to a good start, Jim Fish, Brian Kirshner, and Nancy Lindeman (also Co-Meet Director) did an outstanding job of providing orientations and encouragement. Meanwhile Peter Graham, Shirley Pierce, and Jeff Lanam did a great job of sorting out the groups, getting them to fill out their forms properly, and sending them off to a good start. At the finish line, the results were recorded by Alex Saltman, Derek & Rory Maclean, and Chad Davis. Once again, Everett and Jean Beuerman did a wonderful job of greeting and registering the eager participants. We also had plenty of help picking up controls from Jake Niebaum, Scott Aster, Mutsumi Sugizaki, and Russell Neilson. Last but not least, Carla Hedger was helpful in organization of the meet. Thanks to everyone for a great effort.
The White Course was run by 27 teams and individuals. The winners were the pair of Jimmy Chung and Brandon Nguyen who finished in a time of 25:40. Congratulations to Jimmy and Brandon, two 13 year olds, who seem to be doing very well at orienteering. Not far behind was Viktoria Batanova who finished the course in 26:12. The team of Chris Cobey and Michael Slaise finished third with a time of 26:34.
The Score-O sprint version (six controls) was won by Chelsea Waite in a time of 35:53. This is a very promising performance by an up and coming 16 year old. The team of Bill Strauss and Vitya Aikens were second in 43:48, followed by Irena Zaks at 44:50. The next level (10 controls) was won by Vladislav Skortsov in a time of 60:51. Scott Aster was second at 69:56, and Yulia Yukina was third at 81:52. Actually, Chuck Spalding had the best time for ten controls at 58:00, but since he helped to set the controls he was running in an unofficial capacity and doesn't get the big trophy. Much thanks to Chuck for his assistance in getting this meet set up.
Over thirty runners opted for the two longer versions of the Score-O. The winner of the 15-control group was Brad Wetmore who finished in 68:53. He was followed by Mark Prior who finished in 71:22. Jim Waite was third, in 75:00, but gets extra credit for punching 16 controls. Among the most ambitious group that punched 20 of the 22 controls, there were eight runners who finished in 80 to 90 minutes. The winner was Rex Winterbottom in 81:00 minutes, followed closely by Michael Prindiville with a time of 81:40. Mattias Eriksson was fourth in 84:37 minutes. Anyone who has bothered to read this far may also be interested to know that the most popular control to skip was #22, chosen by eight of the sixteen finishers (two punched all 22 controls). Other controls skipped by more than one runner were #7 (six runners), #9 (five runners), and #10 (four runners).